A cat is an itch that scratches you.”ĭeDrew’s adoration of cats represents one of the most enduring lesbian clichés out there. The women are fundamentally uncool, but there is poetry in their devotion: “A cat is a friend you didn’t know you needed. Wearing turtleneck sweaters and pleated pants, DeDrew - played by Kate McKinnon - and a rotating cast of girlfriends and former flings revel in their co-dependent tendencies and love of bad puns, while extolling the virtues and forgiving the flaws of abandoned cats. “A cat is a treasure you hold with your heart … Cats have paws, claws, and zero flaws,” begins a Saturday Night Live “ commercial” for “Whiskers R We,” starring a sanguine, white-haired cat rescuer named Barbara DeDrew. Photo: Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Her short stories have been widely published and she is a teacher in Santa Cruz, California.Kate McKinnon and Melissa McCarthy in SNL’s “Whiskers R We” commercial Her forthcoming memoir, The Keeper of Memory is about growing up as the daughter of Holocaust refugees who kept their Jewish identity a secret from her.īettianne Shoney Sien has run fourteen marathons.

She is the editor of numerous anthologies, including Cats (and their Dykes) and Childless by Choice: A Feminist Anthology. Irene Reti began running in early 1996 and has completed four marathons.

Women Runners will illuminate and inspire any runner-man or woman-and send them out the door for a few more miles of sweat and illumination. Running shapes one's life to its very foundation, and these stories and essays all celebrate its power to radically transform and empower. Herein are stories about women running through pregnancy, running out their grief at the loss of loved ones, running a first marathon, running without fear, taking up running in midlife, running a 100-mile race, running naked stories about running and love, and a high school girl finding her identity and strength through running. These are not profiles of elite runners or Olympic personalities-they are moving works of literature about ordinary people achieving something extraordinary in their lives. The runners depicted cover the whole range of women-young and old, single and married, gay and straight, fast and slow, casual runners and fierce. It is a perfect paired volume with The Runner's Literary Companion-the art of writing seeking to comprehend the ineffable, incomparable nature of running.

These all-new works, solicited from published authors, run the gamut from humorous to serious to sad, from poetry to fiction to essay. This anthology by and about women runners truly captures the essence of running, and the spirit and dreams of women.

Cats (and their Dykes) by Irene Reti